Topic: EU - on June 13, 2012 at 11:10:00 AM CEST
Double Standards: EU Commissioner De Gucht Is 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty'; EU Citizens Are 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent'
The Belgian EU Commissioner Karel De Gucht is the driving force behind ACTA, and is apparently really keen to combat crimes like counterfeiting and piracy. It also seems he has a slight problem with the tax authorities:
Belgium’s Tax Inspection Service has accused European Commissioner Karel De Gucht of tax fraud. The service says that Mr De Gucht and his wife failed to declare the profit that they made on the sale of shares of the Vista group on which tax was due.
"Politician accused of tax fraud" is hardly news; but what is more interesting is the European Commission's reaction. Here's what it said according to the Dutch language version of the story on the site quoted above:
The Commission adds to this that De Gucht "not guilty until proven to the contrary."</p>
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Topic: EU - on June 13, 2012 at 11:08:00 AM CEST
Weltbank-Bericht - Europa wird ein unkalkulierbares Risiko
Die Börsen spielen verrückt, die Zinsen für Staatsanleihen steigen: Nach Ansicht von Weltbank-Experten wird Europa für die Weltwirtschaft ein unkalkulierbares Risiko. Eine weitere globale Krise sei denkbar, sagt ein Ökonom der Organisation.
Europa ist für die Weltwirtschaft ein unkalkulierbares Risiko, so die Weltbank. Das Auf und Ab in der europäischen Schuldenkrise werde nach Ansicht von Experten der Organisation zu einer Belastung für die globale Wirtschaft. Kursverluste an den Börsen und steigende Zinsen für Staatsanleihen machten dies deutlich, heißt es in der neuen Weltbank-Konjunkturprognose. Sollte sich die Situation in Europa deutlich verschlechtern, würden weder reiche noch aufstrebende Länder verschont bleiben.
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Topic: EU - on June 13, 2012 at 9:57:00 AM CEST
Eurozone crisis live: Focus shifts to Italy ahead of bond auctions
Pressure is building on eurozone's third-largest economy
• German finance minister says "Italy is not in danger" • Today's agenda
8.37am: Echoing Schäuble's comments that Italy is not in danger, the chief economist of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has also warned against a panic.
Pier Carlo Padoan said in an interview with Italian daily Il Messaggero:
There are no changes to the country's economic fundamentals that can justify an attack on Italy. Among OECD countries, Italy is one of the closest to a stabilisation of its debt. If there wasn't the contagion factor, steps taken so far towards recovery would be the right ones.
8.31am: Italy is not in danger, Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has declared in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa. He says that Italy won't be the next "contaminated" country. "For Italy, no danger if it follows the path of Mountains," the headline reads. The question is, is he saying that because Germany doesn't want to bail out Italy as well?
Calling on Italian readers to provide a translation of the rest...
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Topic: EU - on June 13, 2012 at 9:55:00 AM CEST
Austrian minister says Italy too may need bailout
Raising the stakes in Europe's debt crisis, Austria's finance minister said Italy may need a financial rescue because of its high borrowing costs, drawing a sharp denial on Tuesday from the Italian prime minister.
Maria Fekter's assessment of the euro zone's third largest economy stoked investors' fears that Europe is far from ending 2-1/2 years of turmoil - a feeling reinforced by Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, who said the euro zone was "still far from stable".
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Topic: EU - on June 12, 2012 at 9:04:00 AM CEST
European ISPs Lobby ITU Against Net Neutrality
Service providers say they should have the right to charge for better service
European ISPs have asked the ITU to guarantee service providers’ right to charge more for guaranteed service levels, against the wishes of those lobbying for Net Neutrality.
Governments including that of the Netherlands have passed laws banning the creation of a so-called “two-tier Internet”, in order to prevent service providers choking rival services. However, the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO) has argued that the ability to charge for differentiated service is essential and urged the UN’s telecoms body to enshrine the principle in new international regulations.
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Topic: EU - on June 12, 2012 at 9:03:00 AM CEST
Intelligente Messsysteme: Verbraucherprofile werden weit mehr als den Energieverbrauch erfassen, wenn nicht angemessene Schutzmaßnahmen ergriffen werden
Am 8. Juni 2012 hat der Europäische Datenschutzbeauftragte (EDSB) seine Stellungnahme zur Empfehlung der Kommission zu Vorbereitungen für die Einführung intelligenter Messsysteme abgegeben; diese Empfehlung gibt den Mitgliedsstaaten Hilfestellung dabei, die Einführung dieser Systeme vorzubereiten.
Die Einführung intelligenter Messsysteme in ganz Europa mag zwar signifikanten Nutzen bringen, wird aber auch die massive Sammlung personenbezogener Daten ermöglichen, mit denen verfolgt werden kann, was die Mitglieder eines Haushalts in ihren eigenen vier Wänden tun, ob sie im Urlaub oder auf der Arbeit sind, ob sie spezielle medizinische Geräte oder ein Babyphon benutzen, wie sie ihre Freizeit verbringen, und so weiter. Diese Muster können nützlich sein, um unseren Energieverbrauch für Energiesparzwecke zu analysieren. Zusammen mit Daten aus anderen Quellen ist das Potenzial für Data-Mining sehr bedeutsam. Muster und Profile können für viele Zwecke genutzt werden, Marketing, Werbung und Preisdiskriminierung durch Dritte eingeschlossen.
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Topic: EU - on June 12, 2012 at 9:01:00 AM CEST
Euro zone discussed capital controls if Greek exits euro: sources
European finance officials have discussed limiting the size of withdrawals from ATM machines, imposing border checks and introducing euro zone capital controls as a worst-case scenario should Athens decide to leave the euro.
EU officials have told Reuters the ideas are part of a range of contingency plans. They emphasized that the discussions were merely about being prepared for any eventuality rather than planning for something they expect to happen - no one Reuters has spoken to expects Greece to leave the single currency area.
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Topic: EU - on May 22, 2012 at 10:23:00 AM CEST
Greeks embrace some new myths about life with the euro
In a land of ancient myths, modern Greeks have created some of their own about their near-bankrupt country's future as an integral part of a Europe that will never kick them out.
Solemn warnings from abroad that Athens cannot stay in the euro while rejecting the terms attached to the billions offered to pull Greece out of its financial hole are widely disbelieved in a land that considers itself the envy of foreigners.
However bad their prospects, many Greeks seem to think that since money to bail them out was found in the past, it will be found again, whatever politicians say.
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Topic: EU - on May 7, 2012 at 5:36:00 PM CEST
Debakel für Griechenlands Regierungsparteien
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Topic: EU - on May 7, 2012 at 12:31:00 PM CEST
Euro declines on French and Greek election results
The euro fell against the dollar and the pound on Monday following weekend election results.
Poor performances by pro-bailout parties in Greece and the victory of Francois Hollande in France, who wants to focus more on growth, have cast doubt on European austerity plans.
The euro fell as low as $1.295, its lowest since January, and dropped to three-year lows against the pound.
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Topic: EU - on May 7, 2012 at 12:29:00 PM CEST
Eurozone crisis live: Greek market rocked by election
• Greek shares fall as much as 7.7% • Euro tumbles on election results • Mediterranean bond yieds, credit default swaps rise
11.12am: Giles Tremlett from Madrid reports that: Something afresh is going on in Spain's banking sector... but
Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy has this morning announced a further round of reforms to the country's ailing banking system for later this week.
1.41pm: Analysts at Citigroup have raised the likelihood of Greece leaving the euro within 18 months to 75% after the shock election result.
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Topic: EU - on April 8, 2012 at 5:15:00 PM CEST
Die Sicherheitsarchitektur der EU im Wandel – Die geplante parlamentarische Kontrolle der Sicherheits- und Nachrichtendienste in der Europäischen Union durch das Europa-Parlament
Das Generaldirektorat für Innenpolitik der EU-Kommission hat in einer Studie die parlamentarische Kontrolle der Sicherheits- und Nachrichtendienste in den Staaten der Europäischen Union durch das Genfer Institut zur demokratischen Kontrolle der Streitkräfte (Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces - DCAF) und das European Union Institute - EUI untersuchen lassen. Dieses offizielle, 446 Seiten umfassende Papier enthält eine Vielzahl von Vorschlägen zur Angleichung der parlamentarischen Kontrolle von Sicherheits- und Nachrichtendiensten in der EU. Diese Vorschläge berühren massiv die Souveränitätsrechte der Nationalstaaten in der Union und zielen damit langfristig auf die Einführung einer Sicherheits- und Nachrichtendienststruktur unter Kontrolle der Europäischen Union ab.
Magdeburger Journal zur Sicherheitsforschung, Bd. 1 (2012) wissens-werk.de
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